Lottery to complete Chicago Marathon registration

The 2012 Chicago Marathon celebrates its 35th anniversary on Columbus Day weekend with competitors starting and finishing in Chicago's Grant Park. The race, with 45,000 participants, includes world-class elite runners and a wheelchair field.

The lottery entry period for the 15,000 remaining places will begin next Tuesday at 12:01 A.M. CST on www.chicagomarathon.com and end Thursday, Mar. 7, at 9 p.m.

Lottery winners will be notified by email Tuesday, March 12 and have until Thursday, March 14 to complete registration and pay the standard entry fee. There is no fee to enter the lottery.

Entries are limited to one per individual. Entry time or order will not affect chances of selection.

Entries not claimed by the deadline will not be reissued.

The registration website had crashed intermittently after being opened at noon Feb. 19. Marathon officials suspended the first-come, first-served registration for the Oct. 13 race about four hours into the process.

There were originally 45,000 available spots in the race. Some 30,000 entries were successfully allocated despite the problems.